Sometimes a four-year academic adviser is just not enough, so when students register for classes, many consult the popular Web site RateMyProfessors.com. For the uninitiated, RateMyProfessors.com is a Web site created in 1999 that allows students to rate college professors anonymously in four categories: clarity, helpfulness, easiness and interest. Users may also leave written comments alongside their scores.

The site states that students, as “customers” of professors, deserve a public forum in which to voice their opinions. Those planning out schedules may use the site to avoid teachers who might be too difficult, dull or simply unlikeable.

No stranger to this type of Web site, David Levine, a freshman, was a user of RateMyTeachers.com in high school. For college, he is using RateMyProfessors.com to avoid fussy professors because just one can “make life hell.” Thus far, he has found the information on both sites to be fairly accurate, acknowledging the fact that he has yet to drop a class due to a professor.

Jessica Lee, a freshman, also visited RateMyTeachers.com, which she found to have “insightful and true” information about her teachers during her high school years. Like Levine, she checks RateMyProfessors.com to arm herself with knowledge before selecting professors.

“I love the site for its brutally honest comments,” Lee said. “But sometimes when there are conflicting opinions, I’m forced to make my own judgment.”

Not only students can leave remarks about professors on the site. Professors can also reply to these commentaries with their own views. This leads many to wonder what professors think about the site? Since only a small number of Washington University professors chose to post their rebuttals online, we decided to ask a few more for their thoughts on the subject.

Contrary to popular belief, the Web site is not universally detested by all teachers. Professor Richard Smith of the anthropology department, who ranks an impressive third in total ratings for the University, has been privy to the site’s existence for five years. He, in fact, does approve of the core mission but clarifies that it should be taken with a grain of salt.

“It is in most cases useful information about the difficulty of the course and whether the professor engages students,” Smith said. “But sometimes, they are rude and critical without being constructive.”

Though he may agree with the intentions of the site, Smith objects to the severity that often comes with online anonymity. He warns that while it may be easy to “dehumanize the person at the front of the room,” anonymous users should keep in mind that their posts are judgments of real people.

Despite the sprinklings of unforgiving comments, Smith, from a professor’s perspective, still treats his RateMyProfessors.com remarks as valid input on his teaching—at least the thoughtful ones.

“I would treat a comment there the same way I would treat one from a [Washington University] course evaluation,” Smith said.

Not all teachers are in agreement about RateMyProfessors.com’s aim to be a resource for students. Professor Alan Lambert, hailing from the psychology department, has little faith in the site’s ratings and thinks that students should share his skepticism.

“It is a horribly, irrevocably flawed system,” Lambert said. “It’s bogus; statistically speaking, it has no merits whatsoever.”

He is referring to his number of ratings—a whopping 27 in the fifteen years that he has been at Washington University. Lambert, who teaches 600 students in Intro to Psychology, receives about one or two RateMyProfessors.com ratings per semester. He explains that with such a small and nonrepresentative sample size, the Web site is woefully inaccurate compared to official course evaluations, which have 90 percent feedback. He advises students to be wary of the site’s accuracy, or lack thereof.

“There’s also a perception it’s more legitimate because it’s not run by the institution,” Lambert said. “It [RateMyProfessors.com] is a disservice to students, but at least it’s a form of entertainment.”

Dorothy Petersen, a lecturer in the economics department, also finds ratings to be amusing. “Boring subject, but she can’t help it,” is one of her favorite humorous comments.

Her opinion on the subject is simple: “More information is better than less, but one must look at the site through a filter,” Petersen said.

As it turns out, professors do not hate RateMyProfessors.com. They might not see eye to eye with its mission, its impact on students or even its impact on themselves, but they all agree that it is good for a few chuckles.